a slippery slope

Slippery slope, indeed. Isn't all of life one?

It's morning again. It's morning and it is winter and it is cold and it is snowing and i have to go to work and i have to take the dog out and i am running late. Yeah, like that. It's morning again.

I round up Sweet Pea. The easiest part of the ordeal. She comes circling as soon as I start sliding my arms into my coat. How does she know? Then the circling begins. It is some kind of morning dance we do. Me trying to get to the back door and her making sure that I take her with me when I walk out it. Somehow we manage to do exactly that. Get out the back door without me tripping over her form circling repeatedly around my legs. I hitch her to her tree (with a 25 ft leed. Trust me this is not cruelty. This dog is an escape artist and this is our ONLY option) then head for the drive and my car.

I stand in front of it. Why am I perplexed. Of course it's covered with snow. This IS Michigan, and it's morning and i have to get to work and it just wouldn't be right if i didn't have to clean the white stuff that fell during the night off my car so i could do that. I unlock the car and start the engine. Pull the broom out of the back seat (it's much faster than an ice scraper/brush) and start to work on the top of the car. It's not too bad, some days it is really piled high. Then I feel it; my feet are sliding (we live on a hill). I grab the handle to the back door and catch myself from sliding all the way down the drive and out into the street. And in this awkward position I continue; holding on to the door handle with one hand, sweeping snow off the car with the other.

Once I finish all I can reach while hanging on to the rear door handle, I have to figure out how to navigate the rest of the car. I manage. Afterall I have been living in Michigan a very, very long time. And in this house on the hill... a long time. So, that's done.

I head back to the rear yard and gather up the dog who is always excited to see me. I don't know why either, but I strongly suspect it has something to do with the treat she knows is coming once we get back into the house.

I'm running late. I grab a baggie and fill it with cheerios and pour a little milk into a sealed plastic bowl and head out the door. The defroster has done a good job, the windshield is clear. The walk into the building from the parking lot across the street is a bit slicky but soon I am inside my office. I set breakfast on my desk, go to the front office and take off my coat and manage to get distracted only slightly before heading for my desk. Afterall, breakfast is waiting.

My computer is booting up and I turn to the task of eating. To my surprise I see that I have milk all over my desk. No way! Yes. That's milk. I clean up the mess. Look at my empty cereal bowl (all the milk leaked out with the lid still sealed, or appearing to be sealed) and my bag of dry cheerios. Oh well, I dump the cherrios into the bowl, pick up the spoon and sit down to a great breakfast.

I must add that at lunch when I reached into my purse I found everything wet. I was sure I had not pushed snow into my purse while getting in to my car (I have done that before), so I couldn't figure it out. Then my brain started working and I realized it was wet with milk. In fact everything was wet with milk. I had to dump everything in my purse out. Turn it inside out and set it in front of my air filter to dry. Then wash everything off. Especially the wayward change that collects in the bottom of my purse.

Glad Ware indeed. That bowl was certainly misnamed.